Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, the Senate majority whip (pictured), called medical marijuana a “gateway drug.”
Marijuana inspires debate in Georgia Senate, with three bills passing before the deadline
ATLANTA — Marijuana has been a major topic in the Georgia Senate this legislative session, with three bills passing the chamber just ahead of the deadline Thursday to keep them in play this year. Two of the measures, Senate Bill 33 and Senate Bill 254, seek to restrict what’s legally available at convenience stores and smoke shops. The third, Senate Bill 220, would expand and modify access to medical marijuana.
That measure by Sen. Matt Brass, R-Newnan, would increase the allowed legal concentration of cannabidiol in dispensed medical cannabis tenfold, to 50%, while reducing the amount of medical cannabis one can legally possess by the same factor, to two ounces. The net result is a higher concentration of cannabidiol per dose with the same total limit on possession. Cannabidiol is the non-psychoactive ingredient associated with the relief of pain and other symptoms of disease. Brass, chairman of the powerful Senate Rules Committee, said he had concerns about the health effects of vaping, which is a popular way of consuming the substance, but he said he was balancing that against patients’ need for immediate relief. “They may need this medicine to work a little bit faster than one hour or two hours,” he said.
SB 220 would also add cancer and Lupus to conditions for which medical cannabis can be prescribed, and it would strike the current requirement that other allowable conditions, such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease, be severe or end stage. And it would allow pharmacies to dispense medical cannabis to parents and the designated caregivers for adults. All of this was too much for some of Brass’s fellow Republicans. Sen. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, said long-term marijuana use has a “massive” impact on health and brain function. “The density of marijuana we’re talking about here is about getting people stoned,” he said. Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, the Senate majority whip, called medical marijuana a “gateway drug.” SB 220 still passed 39-17, with help from Democrats.
